MATCH REPORT
Follow UsHazratullah Zazai smoked 77 off 38 to help Peshawar Zalmi knock Karachi Kings out of the Pakistan Super League 2021 on Monday (June 21). Peshawar won by five wickets and will now play Islamabad United in the Eliminator 2 on Tuesday. The winner will take on Multan Sultans in the final on Thursday.
Two dropped catches of Sherfane Rutherford on the first and penultimate balls by Danish Aziz and Thisara Perera in Mohammad Ilyas’ last over saw Peshawar get seven runs and cross the line.
Player of the match Zazai’s whirlwind 77 set the tone for Zalmi’s successful chase of 176. The Afghanistan opener smashed 10 fours and five sixes in 38 balls and stitched an opening partnership of 49 with Kamran Akmal (13 off 12) and then added 43 more runs with Imam-ul-Haq (11 off 17).
In both alliances, he took the lead role and made sure that the Kings’ bowlers remained on the defensive. When he became Perera’s second wicket, Zalmi had, by then, accumulated 103 runs in 11.3 overs.
Shoaib Malik provided support in the middle-order with his 30 off 25, before Sherfane Rutherford (17* off 10) sealed the win.
Earlier, Zalmi pacers Wahab Riaz, Mohammad Irfan and Umaid Asif equally shared six wickets and the seventh wicket was taken by Mohammad Imran as Kings were restricted to 175 for 7.
Babar Azam scored his seventh half-century of the edition after Wahab decided to bowl first. Kings wickets fell at regular intervals after Sharjeel Khan (26 off 20) was dismissed in the sixth over and Babar struggled to find the desired support from the other end.
Perera played a handy knock in the middle-order scoring 37 runs at more than two runs-a-ball as his 18-ball stay at the wicket was studded with four fours and three sixes.
(With inputs from PSL release)
